Wider Community

St Martin within Ludgate has long had a close relationship with a number of Livery Companies within the City of London. Having made important contributions to church life for many centuries, they continue their close involvement with St Martin’s today.

Most hold their annual Installation Service to install new Masters and members here, also celebrating the Christmas season with Carol Services in the church. Livery company members are often married, baptised and even had funeral or memorial services here. In addition St Martin’s is honoured to serve other Livery Companies from time to time.

You will see from the list below that we also share a special relationship with the Central Criminal Court (aka The Old Bailey), the Middlesex Yeomanry Association and the Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School at Highgate.

The Chartered Accountants’ Company was formed in 1977, being the 86th in the historic order of precedence of Livery Companies. Its Royal Charter was granted in 2012. The Company seeks to promote in each generation the standards, skills and talents which the Chartered Accountancy profession represents. It has a long association with St Martin within Ludgate, where it traditionally holds its annual Carol Service and on occasions other Church services

The Cutlers’ Company is one of the most ancient of the City of London livery companies and received its first Royal Charter from Henry V in 1416. Its origins are to be found among the cutlers working in the medieval City of London in the vicinity of Cheapside. As was the case with the other trade guilds of the day, its function was to protect the interests of its members, to attend to their welfare, and to ensure that high standards of quality were maintained. Their business was producing and trading in knives, swords, and other implements with a cutting edge. Over time the emphasis shifted from implements of war to cutlery and other domestic wares such as razors and scissors.

With the demise of the sword making and cutlery trade in the City during the 19th. century, the Company directed its attention towards supporting the surgical instrument trade by indenturing apprentices, and expanding its charitable activities with particular emphasis on supporting education.

Today the Company combines these charitable endeavours with maintaining the traditions of the City of London; supporting the Mayoralty; providing fellowship and hospitality; and preserving the Company’s Hall and other assets for the benefit of future generations. With a livery of only 100 members, many of whom have been admitted by patrimony, it is in every sense a family Company and one which is justly proud of its ancient heritage and ancestry.

The Worshipful Company of Paviors is one of the City of London livery companies that have their foundation in the ancient guilds that regulated the standard of work and conditions of employment for craftsmen and apprentices working within the City.

The principal objective of the Paviors Company is ‘to further the craft of paving; that is the planning, design, construction, maintenance and management of all paved surfaces’. The Company achieves this through its outreach programme, which focuses mainly on education and training for young people, but also promotes excellence in the paving profession more generally. The Company is active in City of London activities and provided a recent Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Sir Michael Bear. The Paviors have a close association with the armed forces and with St Martin-within-Ludgate, where the installation service is held for each new Master of the Company.

The Worshipful Company of Scriveners is 44th in the order of precedence of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The first Ordinances were granted in 1373 and the Royal Charter in 1617. Women were first admitted to the Company in 1665. As the name implies, Scriveners have always been, by definition, writers, and were originally known as Writers of the Court Letter as opposed to the members of the Stationers Company, who are derived from the Writers of the Text Letter. This distinction is essentially between those who wrote confidential documents such as wills and charters, and those who wrote other books and, in particular in the early years, church service books. In the case of the Scriveners the legal connection is now represented by the notarial profession, and in particular the scrivener notaries, who have traditionally practised in the City of London, and who become Freemen of the Company on qualification. St Martin within Ludgate became the Company’s adopted guild church by resolution of the Court in July 1982.

The Central Criminal Court (aka The Old Bailey)
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street it is on, has been holding their annual Carol Service at St Martin’s since the Christmas of 1990. The Carol Service forms one of the first official duties of the newly elected Lord Mayor of Londonwho together with the City’s Sheriffs.

Middlesex Yeomanry Association
As the Regimental Chapel for the Middlesex Yeomanry, we are the starting point for the Lafone Day Parade and Service which takes place annually in Autumn.

Members of the Association and the Squadron assemble at St Martin’s for the Annual Memorial Service and then make their way to the Regimental Memorial in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral for the wreath laying ceremony.

Sir Roger Cholmeley (c.1485-1565) was one of the greatest legal minds of his generation, and his career spanned the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Henry VIII brought him into the heart of Tudor government, and he rose to become Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench under Edward VI. His life is recounted in Benjamin Dabby’s Loyal to the Crown: the Extraordinary Life of Sir Roger Cholmeley, which reveals this eminent lawyer’s connexion to St Martin-within-Ludgate. St Martin’s was Sir Roger’s place of worship in London, and in his Will he provided a sizable bequest to the Church, to the poor of the parish, and the funds for a chantry in remembrance of him and his wife Lady Christian, which was sadly lost in the Great Fire of London. He also secured the lands, revenue, and letters patent needed to found Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School at Highgate, known today as Highgate School. The link between one of St Martin’s most important historic parishioners and Highgate School remains to this day, and on the School’s four hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 2015, services of remembrance and thanksgiving were held at St Paul’s Cathedral and the Church of St Martin-within-Ludgate.

CityAdvice

City Advice is funded by the City of London and delivered by Toynbee Hall and Royal Courts of Justice Citizens Advice.

You can find them at St Martin’s on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Wednesday every month between 12-2pm, offering free, confidential and impartial legal advice to anyone who works, lives or studies in the City of London’s Square Mile or City of London Corporation Estates. The advisors are qualified to advise on consumer and employment rights, welfare benefits, debt, housing and legal issues, relationships, health and wellbeing and the changes to care as a result of the new Care Act.

No appointment is needed so just pop in.

Neighbouring Churches

Before the Fire of London in 1666, there were 97 parish churches within the wall of the City of London. 51 were re-built by Sir Christopher Wren and new ones built in the 18th and 19thCenturies. Today there are 39 churches in the City of London. Below are four of our closest neighbours, not including St Paul’s Cathedral who is closest to us.